The moon has run away
by Haylin Santach
Summary: Suffering through his living nightmares Red is an assassin. With as many faces as a Bookman Red is untraceable, however coincidence leads the Black Order to his doorstep, a final push that will either make him truly fall into the dark or rise up out of the abyss. Allen is red, Noah!Allen Non-yaoi
1. The horses that ride the night

**The moon has run away**

The shadows swept across his face as he ran, they curled around him trying to stop him- to no avail- he ran his eyes wide in fear. The only sounds his feet tap, tapping on the floor. His pained whimpers as the shadows dug their cruel hooks into his legs, arms and back. Always behind him, dragging him back.

"-oming…he's coming t-…-ind yourself in-…" the whispers started and he froze, glancing behind himself in fear, glimpsing the emerald robed figures he collapsed to the floor. Unable to move.

The tendrils of shadows gripping his body pulling his further down. Further into his dark little world.

The last thing he saw was a kind, rosy face. Beautiful light blue eyes and white blonde hair, the face of an angel- twisted into a look of pure disgust. And just as black creeped over his vision the figure, clothed in emerald green, smiling and waving- and then everything was gone. The ground beneath his feet was gone he could no longer feel the cold of the air, or the moonlight on his face.

The world, the earth, the sun, the moon… it was all gone.

He was alone in this world, Red was the only one there.

oO-Oo

(A.N)

Okay so just making it clear that this isn't actually a chapter- it's just the first reaction to the plot bunnies. Basically if you are wondering in which direction the story is going this paragraph will tell you if you can interpret it similarly to me. Honestly this is more for me as a go to for when I get lost :P.


	2. Chapter 1: Plants can blind you

The moon has run away chapter 1

A.N: so I haven't been around for a while, okay I haven't been around for a year…or two -_-' But I'm back and I've written something actually worth reading :D (Please don't kill me )

-oO-Oo-

Red grabbed his gear and shuffled out of the small niche he'd spent the night sheltering in and stretched. He was a small boy, thin and short with obvious signs of malnourishment. His hair was a brilliant crimson striped with early grey, falling in soft waves to his shoulders, and his face was pale but marred with the signs of a harsh life. Sighing he slipped on the thick coat he was burrowed into the night before. Narrowed eyes flickered up to the grey London snow piled up at the edges of the roof above and his mouth twisted into a scowl at the sight of the dirty mounds.

"Bloody freezin', fuckin' assholes in there big 'ouses nice an warm in there I bet it is." He muttered to himself drawing his coat to his body to conserve heat. Shifting slowly Red picked up his old, scuffed and battered leather rucksack and started to wander down the Ally he'd slept in.

At the mouth of the Ally Red paused glancing around suspiciously, the usually bustling main street was completely empty bar from an crooked old man and a round red haired boy bundled up in a huge scarf. Frowning Red attempted to walk along the street unhindered by the two who were quite obviously interested in moving mass of coat with bright red tufting out from under the hood.

"Excuse me! Hello?" the young boy called running after Red (who simply rolled his eyes and quickened his pace), the round boy seemed to take this as an incentive to then burst into a sprint towards him, ending up creating a sandwich of red head, tattered bag and red head as he tripped on his long scarf and landed on top of Red.

"Get arf' of me ya' fuckin crazy!" Red yelled at the boy, "Some people 'ave only jus' woken up ya know!" Fuming Red turned to the old man who had, by then, reached them walking at quite a leisurely pace, "what do ya want?" he growled out glaring at the two strangers. Raising an eyebrow the old man shook his head muttering something about 'manners' and asked,

"Sorry to bother you, but are you human?" peering at Red from squinting eyes.

Red blinked, calming slightly he pulled down his hood and he looked at the old man. Tilting his head to the side and frowning he replied,

"Are ya fuckin' crazy? Of course I'm human! What did ya think I was? Some kinda fuckin' demon?" Red narrowed his eyes at the two, "who are you anyways, I ain't seen you two round ere before. Woulda remembered ya dressed all funny like in black like some kinda soldiers!" The old man's eyes widened and he peered down at the young boy again,

"Did you not hear anything last night?"

Red growled at the man,

"I was sleeping, like normal HUMAN's tend ta do when they get tired."

"So you heard nothing at all?"

"Nothin."

The old man smiled and nodded his head to himself,

"In that case I would have to inform you that beside me and Nathaniel here, you are the only human alive in the entire of the east of London." Snorting Red shook his head and pointed to the end of the street,

"Then ow the fuck is there the ol' bint from the church walkin' down the street? She ain't lookin very dead to me." The old man and Nathaniel turned to look at the end of the street where a small frail old lady with a cane and a small dog was shuffling towards them. Red smirked at the old man, "Knew ya were a crazy," he turned towards the old woman and waved to her as she approached, "morning miss Hereford! Ows the ol knee's today?"

The old lady turned to face him and smiled shuffling over,

"Good morning Red, How are you this morning?" she smiled handing him a roll from the bag she held. Red took the roll and grinned at her,

"I'm fine but these crazies behind me have been goin on bout there bein no one but me and them alive in the whole of eas'end." He muttered taking a bite of the roll. The old woman looked at the old man and boy behind Red and chuckled kindly,

"we shouldn't be prejudiced towards those of us with less able minds dear, always remember it's the one's who wrong god who must be punished." She smiled in that way that only grandmothers can and turned to face the old man and the boy again, a flicker of recognition passed in her eyes but she quickly hid it by smiling. "Do either of you want some bread my dears? Or perhaps are you lost and looking for directions?" The old man frowned and pushed Nathaniel behind him slightly,

"No we were just wondering where everyone was, we came to this street only last night and it was-"he paused looking for the correct word, "teeming with creatures." He finished, looking at the woman closely he observed the way she stood, not quite leaning fully on her cane, but using it to give her balance as if she were still learning to walk.

The old woman turned back to Red,

"My dear I have to warn you that these people are not people you should be fraternising with," she glanced at Reds confused face, "look closely at their coats and tell me what you can see." Red frowned at her and glanced at the two strangers inspecting them thoroughly, then his face paled in recognition as he saw the silver rosary broach on the elders lapel. Eyes flashing red he growled and looked back to the old lady,

"Shall I get rid a' them?" he said glaring at the old man and round child who by now were readying their respective weapons, ready to defend themselves. The old lady shook her head smiling again,

"I shall do that, you should go back to Mr Wisely, he'll send you on to your next posting. I'm afraid you're done here Red." She explained shooing him away. Red looked at her and then at the exorcist behind her, he sighed,

"May they rest in hell." He muttered and ran off down the street. Quite forgetting his bag lying on the cobblestones from where he had been used as a crash mat.

After he had gone the old lady turned to the two and smiled,

"Well then Bookman and junior, shall we play?"

Shedding her skin the old lady unfolded into a tall humanoid figure made of what seemed to be tree roots entwined together. The thud of two tiny acupuncture needles embedding themselves into her bark wasn't heard as she charged at the Bookman whiled the Akuma pentacle was still forming on her forehead. Bookman jumped out of the way and Nathaniel unhooked a small hammer from his belt and cried,

"Little hammer big hammer! Grow, grow, grow!" with a grin as the tiny toy hammer enlarged into a sledgehammer sized stripy mallet. He grinned and drew back the hammer,

"BAKUHATSU!" he cried and an arrangement of seals appeared on the face of the hammer. The face of the hammer collided with the Akuma when she charged into it, unable to stop her momentum, and exploded in a large grey cloud of dust that settled into a fine layer that coated the ground, adding to the copious amounts of it already laid by the hunt the two exorcists had performed last night.

-oO-Oo-

The next day

Bookman sighed at he blocked out the head of the black order yelling at him down the phone. When the aged man on the other end of the phone had stopped his tirade Bookman began to explain the previous day,

"I'm afraid to confirm that the reports the finders had been giving before disappearing were true sir, the entire of east London was populated entirely by Akuma, the reported 'grey snow' was the previous residents I'm afraid," he paused as the head spoke,

"Have you erased the disease?" Bookman chuckled,

"Yes, east is clean of Akuma. But Sir,"

"Yes? Spit it out!"

"There was one- anomaly sir." There was a silence on the end of the line.

"Anomaly?" The head growled softly,

"Yes sir, a boy. I believe he was human. As soon as he realised what myself and Nathaniel were he turned hostile."

"You sure he wasn't just another Akuma?" the head coughed, "he wasn't one of Them was he?" Bookman frowned at the man's choice of words.

"I'm not entirely sure, but he may have been."

The head was silent for a while then he said,

"Return to base and pray to god you're not right." He muttered then hung up. Raising an eyebrow disapprovingly he turned to Nathaniel who was combing his red hair. The boy was struggling to detangle twigs from his hair from the exploded akuma, one of which was dangerously close to his right eye. Turning away Bookman went to get changed ignoring his apprentice who had given up and was trying to wash it out in shower.

After changing into clothes and out of his pyjamas Bookman heard a strangled cry from the bathroom. Rushing in he saw the sight of Nathaniel twitching on the floor, the twigs having grown into long thick vines that were strangling the boy. Ripping them off of him and cutting them away carefully Bookman heard a squelching sound as Nathaniel gave another cry of pain. He looked up from the boys abused neck with dread. The vines had rooted themselves in the boy's right eye. Blood streamed down the boys cheek and his face was contorted into one of indescribable pain.

Grabbing a needle from his set at his waist Bookman took a deep breath and started to attempt to pry the vine out of his eyeball. Seeing how fruitless his actions were Bookman gave a determined grunt and set to removing the boys eyeball completely, with only a small scalpel and a needle.

Soon both Nathaniel's eye and the writhing vines were lying in the sink of the bathroom burning and Nathaniel was lying on the ground unconscious with his now only one eye streaming tears.

Bookman's mouth was set into a grim line as he began bandaging and cleaning the now empty eye socket. With a sigh he placed the boy onto his bed and disposed of the remaining matter in the sink. He sat in the chair in the corner of the room and sighed. Looking at Nathaniel with world weary eyes.

-oO-Oo-

Don't forget to review! I love to hear people's opinions and ideas on where the stories are going, they're also awfully motivating *wiggles eyebrows* if you know what I mean.


	3. Chapter 2:The two aprentices

Chapter 3 – (Lavi) Church Librarian

Haha… Yeah I'm alive (just about) and finally writing something (shocking right?)

Because I haven't been on for so long I've been looking at my stories and realising that no longer find them interesting or I'm embarrassed by the writing style. I guess the motivation to write kinda escaped me at the moment.

On another note, shirubagure- I have not a clue about Lavi's previous alias's in all of their topsy turvy glory so I'll try my best but there's gonna be some inconsistencies between this fic and cannon :/ sorry :

Anyway – START

The next few years in the world of the holy war were quiet. For years now there had been no strange mass akuma attacks. None at all, ever since the 'London Massacre' which was followed by the highest amount of exorcists ever used in the field in one place. Central had taken this period of calm as an opportunity to find new ways to defeat the earl, employing an army of scientists and finders and using them to investigate more into the biology of innocence and akuma.

Over this time the main branch of the black order had become more akin to a laboratory than a place of religious war. More often than not the brightly lit labs held restrained akuma, stripped to their bare skeletons and added to in terrifying ways. And of course Akuma weren't the only thing being experimented on in the halls, humans , animals and innocence itself were all being subjected to inane experiments all for the 'greater good' and the 'betterment' of mankind.

Though these experiments were often cruel and morally skewed they did on occasion breed magnificent results. The Asian sister of the main branch had created a way of artificially holding innocence in a dormant state that allowed it to be added to and warped into the creator's desire. The main branch itself had discovered how to ward akuma out of a certain area, created communications devices that required no link to the telephone system and how to heal humans from the very brink of death.

In some eyes the black order had become on the forefront of technological and medicinal science, however despite all the achievements made they were hollow feeling in the face of the sacrifices made to get them. Many lives had been given up to advance and the general feeling around the black order and its nearby towns were ones of discontent. The townspeople surrounding the black order bases were tired of the unanswered questions, such as where had the children gone? Little Timmy had only supposed to be going up for medical check-ups and yet he's never returned. The Story was the same wherever you went: children missing; lands taken; items confiscated or destroyed even whole towns taken over by the order for 'scientific observation'. In absence of a true dark the order had seemed to sink into depravity becoming the one thing they strived to destroy.

oOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoO

Two people strode down the white marble corridors of the cathedral, both walked with a kind of restrained haste as they gracefully raced through the maze-like halls. One of the two, a young boy, was struggling to keep up with the other obviously unused to the long dress-like robes which he wore. The other was tall, not yet crooked over by time despite his age, and also wore the white robes of clergy.

Swiftly the older priest entered the chapel waiting only a second for the bumbling younger priest to enter clutching old tomes and attempting to see over them. Inside the chapel stood a congregation of priests and black order scientists and the like. They were talking frantically, many voices intruding over others each clamouring for attention. The younger priest looked past his books and groaned,

"Father Oscar do we have to deal with these… idiots?" he mumbled glancing to his elder in pleading. Father Oscar simple patted the young priest on his shoulder and smiled,

"Dealing with the Black Order is at the forefront of the duties of a church librarian Nikolei, even more so considering we are in such close proximity to their own home." The old man chuckled, "You should get used to them as fast as possible." He gave the younger priest a 'follow me' action then turned to the rabble and cleared his throat before announcing their presence in a sharp tone, mentioning towards them standing before god, and then gestured for Nikolei to place the tomes on the old table the group had gathered around.

The gathering quietened at once and followed his lead, looking apologetic and sheepish for arguing in such a holy place. A stout dark haired man, who was obviously one of those in charge, frowned at Nikolei before demanding,

"So? What great information have you found in the library that will help us on our quest?" in a sarcastic tone. Father Oscar smiled grimly at the man (ignoring the tone, he was quite used to that by now) before leafing through one of the old tomes and finding a page,

"And out of the dark came a light, a green light to end all of mankind. It washed away the world replacing old with new and sparing none. Only those of god's chosen children remained, and they were gifted with knowledge. Knowledge greater than that of the other children, knowledge of machines. They used this to escape the great cleanse through an ark, built from the wood of the elders oak and moored in the heart of nature's bosom." He finished and sent the dark haired man a withering look, "Do I need to explain further Mr Lvellie?" Said Hitler look-alike twitched before nodding with gritted teeth. Father Oscar rolled his eyes and said, "This passage tells you how Noah's ark was built and where it is, if you are looking for a way to get the Millennium earl why not just attack his home?"

The surrounding group broke out into murmurs and mutters, at the back stood a pair observing the procedures with mild interest. The younger turned to the older,

"That's good right?" he murmured to his master, "now they can get to the source?" Said Master only shifted slightly before replying,

"Only if they can defeat what they find within, apprentice."

The apprentice blinked his one eye slowly, comprehension dawning on him.

"So what happens if they can't?" He asked suspiciously. The old man sighed and turned to face him.

"Then the very existence of humans will be in serious trouble."

oOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoO

Everett had been having a bad day. After having to deal with cataloguing all of the books in the black order library (a task he's only just finished after three weeks of constant work) he'd then had to deal with being carted around by his master like a puppy. As fascinating as being a Bookman (Apprentice actually but who was counting) was, sometimes he thought the effort was more than it was worth. And now after all of that he was being forced to sit there and watch while the idiotic head of the European branch of the black order and his goons clashed with the clergymen of St Hadrian's Cathedral. Sighing and the childishness of the two clashing groups Everett's lone eye wandered around the great hall they stood in. The place was truly amazing; he'd give the clergy that. Large gothic pillars adorned with ornate carvings and heavy silver and gold candle holders lined the cathedral. Instead of pews old wooden tables and benches filled the cavernous floor space and at the end of the hall a small ornate chapel containing a font and baptismal alter held pride of place.

Thoughts sharply punctuated by the screeches of one Malcolm. , Everett briefly considered how uncouth it was to argue in such a holy place. Flicking his red hair out of his eye and promising himself to cut it he moved to stand beside his master.

Just in time as through the heavily decorated doors he'd just been leaning against strode an old priest and what appeared to be a walking pile of books. The wizened old priest barked out a brief rant about the gathering disgracing themselves before god which made the congregation stand to attention with a jump. Moving towards the table at the centre of the gathering the walking pile of books was revealed to be a small red headed boy with wire glasses and the beginnings of premature grey speckling his crown. Everett tried to catch a glimpse of the boy but his line of sight was soon disrupted by the gathered people. He frowned, there was something familiar about the boy, he was sure of it.

However that thought was soon swept from his mind when the old priest- Father Oscar head of parish, his mind supplied- began reading form one of the old texts. After finishing the section and answering Lvellie's demands the old priest headed into the inner sanctum of the cathedral, his red and grey haired prodigy following behind.

Everett turned to look at his master with his thoughts in chaos,

"That's good right?" he murmured to his master, "now they can get to the source?" Bookman just remained still, silently contemplating his question. He shifted before replying,

"Only if they can defeat what they find within, apprentice."

Everett blinked before widening his eye in realisation,

"So what happens if they can't?" He asked suspiciously. His master turned to look at him with a dark expression on his face,

"Then the very existence of humans will be in serious trouble."

Bookman then nodded to Lvellie and grabbed his apprentices collar,

"Come, we must record the contents of this library while we can." He shortly stated walking through doors to the side of the hall.

Everett raced to catch up with him, panting and wheezing slightly. Jogging alongside his master he had the feeling he was forgetting something, it was a while before it dawned on him but when it did he halted and gave a loud intake of breath. Facing his mater he asked,

"Do you remember when we were in London just before I lost my eye?" His master looked at him and frowned,

"I do."

"So do you remember the strange boy we met there, the one that the Akuma protected!?" Everett said words stumbling out of his mouth. "The one with the red hair who saw the rose cross and got angry?" He grinned. Bookman stood still for a moment with wide eyes before racing off silently. Everett ran after him,

"If you are correct we may be too late." Bookman said calmly.

Upon arriving at their destination Everett looked around and saw they were in a library of epic proportions with three floors of shelves lining the walls. Following his master deeper into the library he blanched at the smears of blood slowly appearing the deeper they went. Eventually meeting a simple wooden door with a puddle of blood seeping from beneath it.

Entering slowly both Bookmen looked into the room. Blood coated the walls dripping from places and in ways Everett didn't even want to know how were achieved. In the centre of the room laid a body that had been ripped into pieces like a doll. Even more disturbingly the head was sat on the desk in the corner of the room, an eternal expression of terror on its face. Everett gagged and looked away as his master inspected the room,

"Who-who could of done this?" he murmured trying not to be ill from the gore. Bookman turned to face him from where he had been examining the head on the desk with a familiar pair of wire glasses in his hands.

"A certain red haired friend of ours perhaps?" he intoned emotionlessly.

Later on when Everett sat in his room in the English black order hostel he still felt sick as his mind dwelled on the red haired boy. Back in London he distinctly remembered the Akuma calling the boy Red. A codename perhaps? Giving up for now on the crimson haired puzzle he turned to listen in on Bookman's conversation with the Black Order head.

"Appeared again you say? This is too suspicious." The head muttered pacing back and forth, "I'll have a message and artist's impression passed out to all finders and exorcists just to be safe." The old man looked at Bookman wearily before stating,

"We're just not strong enough to take on the Noah family yet."

oOoOoOoOooOoOoOoOoO

Done for now: P its half twelve and even though its Sunday tomorrow (… today?)

Anyways please review or favourite or like or something because I tell you now that's the main reason I've updated this so it's greatly appreciated. I'll try not to disappear for another few years but- hey I'm unreliable like that.

Bis nächste jahr!


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